The Future Coalition is a network of youth-led left-wing organizations that work to promote left-wing views on policy issues from gun control to environmentalism. It had received sponsorship from political organization March On and is seen as the organization’s unofficial youth arm.

The Future Coalition organized climate change demonstrations on September 20, 2019. As a part of those demonstrations, public school students in New York City were encouraged to walk out of school. Future Coalition has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹

Member Organizations

The Future Coalition has 32 member organizations including National Youth Rights Association, Bridge the Divide, Sunrise Movement, Box the Ballot, Chicago Fuerte, Coalition of Students, DC Teens For Action, Embracing Green, Global Minds, Indivisible Students, iMatter, Moco4Change, March for Our Lives, National Die In, National School Walkout, Orange Generation, Parents Promise to Kids, Platform, Redefy, Shattering the Silence, Student Voice, Team Enough, Triangle People Power, Youth Empower, Zero Hour, and 50 Miles More. ²

History

In 2018, the gun control groups March for Our Lives and 50 Miles More and the environmentalist group Zero Hour formed the Future Coalition. 50 Miles More’s Katie Eder was selected to lead the new organization, ³ while the new organization would receive sponsorship from political organization March On ⁴

In September 2018, the coalition began organizing a walkout and school strike in order to get young people to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. The operation was supported by over 100 organizers. The coalition had over 500 walkouts scheduled with thousands of students participating in the election. ⁵

To call attention to the walkout, Eder promoted stories of “voter suppression” claiming that state lawmakers had made it extremely difficult for young people to vote. “If voting wasn’t important, it wouldn’t be so hard. People have made it really hard for young people to vote because they don’t want to hear our ideas,” said Eder in an interview. ⁶

The walkout to vote campaign drew celebrity support. Among the celebrities that supported the campaign was Snoop Dogg. ⁷

September 20 Climate Strike

Future Coalition organized the September 20 Climate Strike that called for more action in combating climate change. Among the events that were organized was a walkout by New York City public school students. ⁸

Ultimately, there were over 800 events scheduled all over the United States. In addition to schoolkids and young people striking, over 1,000 Amazon employees walked off the job to participate. Left-wing corporations such as Tumblr, Kickstarter, and WordPress “went dark” in solidarity with the demonstrations. The climate strike was the kickoff of a week-long series of events around the world designed to advocate for action to fight climate change. ⁸

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, Future Coalition was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ⁹ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹⁰

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1. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
2.    “FUTURE COALITION”. 2019. Future Coalition. Accessed September 23. https://futurecoalition.org.
3.             Lyons, Joseph. 2018. “How 27 Youth Groups Teamed Up To Get Students To The Polls On Election Day”. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/how-walkout-to-vote-brought-27-youth-groups-together-to-get-students-to-the-polls-13089146.
4. Golden, Hannah. 2018. “This Teen Activist Is Giving You One Good Reason Why You Should Get Out & Vote”. Elite Daily. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/what-is-the-walkout-to-vote-young-people-are-taking-their-power-to-the-polls-13092205.   
5. Lyons, Joseph. 2018. “How 27 Youth Groups Teamed Up To Get Students To The Polls On Election Day”. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/how-walkout-to-vote-brought-27-youth-groups-together-to-get-students-to-the-polls-13089146.
6.    Golden, Hannah. 2018. “This Teen Activist Is Giving You One Good Reason Why You Should Get Out & Vote”. Elite Daily. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/what-is-the-walkout-to-vote-young-people-are-taking-their-power-to-the-polls-13092205.
7. Golden, Hannah. 2018. “This Teen Activist Is Giving You One Good Reason Why You Should Get Out & Vote”. Elite Daily. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/what-is-the-walkout-to-vote-young-people-are-taking-their-power-to-the-polls-13092205.
8. Devine, Shane. 2019. “Meet The People Who Want To Make Washington Traffic Even Worse”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/meet-the-people-who-want-to-make-washington-traffic-even-worse/.
9. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
10. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/